Coronavirus hysteria has the world in a fierce grip, with a recent armed robbery of 600 toilet rolls being the latest example of chaos.
In China, there have been more than 74,000 confirmed cases of novel coronavirus (known as Covid-19), with more than 2,000 deaths. Its worldwide contagion, albeit sparse, sparked a global health emergency declaration, inspiring spiralling anxiety around the virus.
Times such as these are ripe for stress-mongers, with fake stories circulating the news cycle each week. One such rumour was that of a chronic toilet roll shortage in Hong Kong – which led to an armed robbery of HK$1,600 worth of toilet paper.
As per the South China Morning Post, three robbers – one reportedly armed with two knives – stole 600 rolls in about 50 packets from a delivery man outside a Wellcome store in Mong Kok at around 6.00am on Monday, February 17.
Police arrested two people, aged 49 and 54, at around 12.00 later that day, however officers are reportedly still on the hunt for three other people. The stolen toilet rolls were found relatively quickly, having been left close to the store in a guesthouse on Sai Yee Street. Nobody was injured in the incident.
A spokeswoman from the supermarket chain said: ‘This is a senseless act and we are shocked. A temporary shortage was caused by a sudden and unusual surge in demand. We will do our utmost to speed up replenishment in our stores until the situation stabilises.’
The surge was likely brought on by a viral WhatsApp memo supposedly from Wellcome, alleging that production of toilet rolls had been halted due to factory closures in mainland China. It has since been exposed as fake, with the Hong Kong government expressing ‘regret over the malicious act of spreading rumours when the city is fighting against the disease, and condemns those rumour-mongers with evil intentions’.
As the city battles with the health crisis, barrister Albert Luk Wai-hung said the toilet paper may have been considered a valuable commodity – however, there are a number of ‘aggravating factors which make the case more serious’, such as its premeditated nature and the fact it was an armed gang robbery. In Hong Kong, robbery carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
The government statement also implored the public ‘to be vigilant against rumours’, with Hong Kong Consumer Council’s CEO, Gilly Wong Fung-han, asking people to refrain from hoarding toilet rolls.
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After graduating from Glasgow Caledonian University with an NCTJ and BCTJ-accredited Multimedia Journalism degree, Cameron ventured into the world of print journalism at The National, while also working as a freelance film journalist on the side, becoming an accredited Rotten Tomatoes critic in the process. He’s now left his Scottish homelands and took up residence at UNILAD as a journalist.